The End of Eden (1986)

Directed by

Rick Lomba

Genre

documentary film

Country

South Africa

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

This documentary shows how cattle ranching and international bank policies are destroying ecosystems in southern Africa. It includes footage of harmful pesticides, overgrazing and interviews with people working in conservation and agriculture.

urgentsoberingeducationalgraphiccriticalbleakinformativeconcerned

What happens

The End of Eden is a 1986 environmental documentary in which the South African filmmaker Rick Lomba (1950–1994) showed the rapid degradation of Africa's ecosystems. The introduction of cattle ranching and the beef industry in the southern African landscape is featured prominently within the film as a primary source of devastation to the land. The film is severely critical of the policies of the World Bank and other international banks in advocating and funding African industrial agricultural and cattle breeding projects in an attempt to boost African economies. It portrays graphically the otherwise forbidden pesticides used to try to eradicate the tsetse fly, which he describes as the last bastion of defence the wilderness has against the encroachment of civilisation, and the erosion and overgrazing that results. Some of it is filmed from a microlight aircraft which he used to approach these areas. Numerous interviews with persons engaged in conservation, big-game hunting, hunger relief and agriculture are presented as well as some economically and environmentally sustainable alternatives such as wildlife farming. The documentary was written and directed by Rick Lomba, produced by Rick Lomba Productions and narrated by American actor Jeff Folger. It was funded by the First National Bank and appeared on television for about three years, after which it inexplicably disappeared from circulation. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

More like this

• Farmlands (2018)
• Place of Weeping (1986)
• Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret (2014)
• Stroop: Journey into the Rhino Horn War (2018)
• 1994: The Bloody Miracle (2013)
• Witness to Apartheid (1986)
• Grazing the Amazon (2018)
• Animals Are Beautiful People (1974)